Eerie Bat-Shaped Nebula Discovered in Deep Space Just Before โฃHalloween
ESO, Chile – Astronomers have captured a striking image of a nebula in the southern skyโ that strikingly resembles a bat in flight, just days before โHalloween. The โcosmic “bat signal,” located โapproximately 10,000 light-years from earth between the constellations Circinus and โNorma, was photographed by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) usingโค the OmegaCAM camera on the VLT Survey telescope (VST).
The โnebula is a vast cloud of gas and dust, a region where new stars โare born – often referred to as stellar nurseries or star birth troughs.The bat-like shape is illuminated by the โintense energy released โfrom these newborn stars, which heat surrounding hydrogen atoms causing them to glow a distinctive red. This process is similar to how a glow-in-the-dark sticker appears โto shine when light fills the material.
Images ofโ the nebula are valuable to astronomers studying star formation and itsโ impact on the surroundingโค environment. The finding also highlights a common human phenomenon known as โฃpareidolia – the tendency to perceive familiar shapes in random patterns, like seeing โfaces in clouds or figures on the Moon.
The image and related information were originally published โby Space scoopโข Universe awareness and translated by Langitselatan.